Blog

Estimated Read Time: 4-5 min TL;DR How we communicate climate change matters a lot for unified climate action, and the track record hasn’t been great. Views on climate change (in the U.S.) have continued to diverge, and conversations around climate change have become increasingly argumentative. Based on a presentation by George Marshall, I advocate for …

TL;DR I've gone through dozens of methods of weekly planning, goal-setting, and journaling. In this post I talk about some of these methods and then share the newest way I've been planning and journalling using Evernote. My method incorporates goal-setting using an OKR (objective and key result) framework, organizing tasks based on importance and urgency, and …

Estimated Read Time: 6-8 min TL;DR: I am a woman, and I study and conduct research at the intersection of several male-dominated fields: engineering, economics, and applied statistics. At times, people have suggested that my gender would interfere with my ability to succeed in these subjects. In this post, I: (1) address my personal experience with …

I have a bad habit of starting books and never finishing them. Usually this happens because something more pressing comes up that makes me put the book down. As a graduate student, this can happen a lot: a fellowship application to complete, an exam to study for, some last minute data crunching... and then I …

Estimated read time: ~8 minutes TL;DR There is typically a social stigma around menstruation in patriarchal societies. In lower-income countries, insufficient water and sanitation infrastructure and lack of access to sanitary materials exacerbates the negative psychosocial effects of menstruation. Qualitative studies have shown menstruation negatively affects girls' education in lower-income countries. While some studies …

Estimated read time: ~5 to 7 min TL;DR Bees and other pollinators are vital to keeping ecosystems and the economy running, but current regulations on neonic pesticides in the U.S. do not sufficiently protect pollinators. Although neonics are temporarily banned under FIFRA, neonic seed treatments (NSTs) are not included in this ban. NSTs should be banned …

As my year at Cambridge comes to a close, I've become tremendously aware of how privileged I am to have attended such an incredible institution. Naturally, my lectures, assignments, exams, and research have required I delve deeper into subjects than I ever have before. But even the casual conversations I've had with faculty and peers …